I saw ghost shrimp for the first time ever in South Australia today! :o

I want one... :P But I really don't know much about them. Cold or tropical? I hear they can do both... Will they attack my fish? Will my fish attack them? :o

Any of your experiences will be appreciated!

I have kept a few Ghost shrimp, but they don't seem to last for long. They are basically feeder shrimp for other fish. They will be ok as long as your fish can't fit them in their mouth. They might eat fry, but otherwise, they will not bother your fish. The most difficult thing about keeping them, since they are really easy to keep, is trying to find them in the tank! :lol:

Here is more info about Ghost Shrimp
http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/...hrimp_ghost.htm

ghost shrimp are tight! but if you want them as a pet make sure all access to outside the tank are covered! they are houdini's! if other fish are in the tank, I would suggest the guppy.

My advice is just don't keep a whole bunch in a small tank with small fish. They can be very greedy about food.

If you kept them with the small cories you were talking about, they would probably steal food from the cories.

One cool thing though is they are about the only critter that I have ever witnessed eating fish poop. They pick it up in their little claws and then you can watch it go into their body since they are clear. Its kinda cool.

They can be greedy, but are a good little guy to have in the fish tank, they will eat the leftovers and other things you give them. They are both cold and tropical.

I've been talking to a mate online about them, and they sound awesome! ^_^

I've set up a bowl just for them... Well, a bowl's not really suited for fish, and I've got an airstone going and it's really cool. I'm going to put two in there (it's about 1 gallon bowl). I'm also going to put 2-4 in my pond. I'm getting algae in it but I'm not ready for fish just yet, so I will see if they help. :)

Thanks for your help, guys!

A lot of people have success breeding them in ponds. That would probably be a really fun addition to your pond! :D

Ghost shrimp are some really cool creatures. I can't keep them for long, as my fish eat them quicker than they can breed. I thought about putting some in my 40. It's well planted so I don't think my bichir would be able to get ALL of them.

Ghost shrimp, from what I know, are tropical and are absolutely no threat to a fish other than fry. They tend to eat eggs or small fry that are just a few days old. They really do a great job of eating algae and excess food though, and really contribute to a cleaner, healthier tank. They are like snails, except cooler looking. :) I say get more than 6, I say get 30-40 of the things! LOL. I buy about 10 at a time and my wife and I have a great time watching them. They have quite a personality.

Well, I got 4 - two for my bowl and two for my pond.

One in my bowl died. :( Any ideas why? It's pretty violent in there, but there are plenty of nooks and stuff to hide in and I've watched them sit around and they don't seem to struggle against it... I'm guessing just moving stress... You never know how old/healthy these things are when you buy them. He even might've been injured in netting or something. :( (They were in cold water in the store, and they're in cold water now.)

I took some pictures of my algae this morning before I put them in the pond. If there's a significant change tomorrow, I'll take more. If not, I will get more shrimp. :P

I've been talking to a guy from Canada about them, and he says that he can get 50 for, like, a few dollars. They were $1.60 each here. :mellow:

Now they're both dead. :(:(:(

Do you think it may be a contamination problem with my bowl?

Hmm what contamination problem are you talking about? What was the temp at? Did you test the Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels before adding them? It might have been stress because ime shrimp are very sensitive to changes in water conditions and various other things. Did you acclimate them? I'm very sorry to hear that the shrimp are dead. :(

Okay, the bowl's set up with old gravel (has been sitting dry for years, cleaned with just water), terracotta pots (which I cleaned with just water before adding them), a brand new airstone, new silicone airline to the airstone, new air pump. The bowl has been sitting dry for years, and I also cleaned it with just water.

I had two filters in my fry tank (one sitting there and one working), and the one just sitting there I removed the filter foam/pad from and that was in the bowl. In the fry tank is one bristlenose (4.5cm - not really fry anymore :P).

'Contaimination' - I was thinking that there might have been 'something' on the pots, the gravel, the bowl that might've killed them? :huh:

I don't know the temperature of the bowl. But the shrimp were in cold water at the store, and they were moved to cold water in the bowl. It felt about the same. That's about all I can tell you.

'ime shrimp'?
They were also labeled as 'glass shrimp'... Same thing or not?

They are also called glass shrimp. Did you adjust them to the temp in your tank by floating the bag? Hope you don't get offended by me asking, but just wondering. I've always had mine in warmer temps. They seem to do well minus the fact that my fish eat them when they can find them. Is the store that you bought them from a reputable one? Also, since they are mostly used as feeders, they may not have been kept in the best of conditions. They may have been sick before you ever bought them. It's tough to tell with small shrimp like ghost shrimp. I'm sure their lifespan is not long anyhow, but it should be at least a year or two I would think.

I'd be sure to test your water and see what your readings are. I don't think ghost shrimp are very hardy when it comes to ammonia or nitrite especially. Those can quickly get out of hand in something as small as a fish bowl. You might try adding them to a larger tank, if you have one.

Mine are constantly jumping out of my tanks also. My fish scare them out if they can't eat them. I find them stuck to the hood. Most of mine would sit on the heater or hang out on the filter intake. My wife and I used to make a game every night out of trying to find the ghost shrimp. It would always look like we didn't have a single one left, but they REALLY have a great way of camoflauging themselves. Are you sure they are dead or are they just missing? If you see a lifeless body, then thats enough evidence for me, but if they are just missing, I'd look really closely to plants, heaters, filter intakes, stones, and what not. They are bound to pop up.

Good luck with future ghost shrimp! Don't give up on them. They are really a fun addition to your tank.

:o

Ammonia: 6.1

:o :o :o

That's INCREDIBLE.

I set the bowl up the day before putting the shrimp in with water straight from the tap. The shrimp were in there for 6 hours. That's amazing. :o
At least it's not a mystery anymore. :( Poor things.

Could the shrimp really produce this much ammonia in 6 hours?

They started of happy and swimming for the first hour, and then they stopped... And died.

:o I am so shocked.


EDIT: Yes, I have bodies to prove their dead. ;) Not just the lack of shrimp.

I didn't catch how big the bowl is... but if it's larger than one tablespoon, then no way did they get your ammonia up to 6.1 in 6 hours by themselves. They put some of the least amount of bio-load on a tank of any creature.

I have well over 20 of them (and around 30 small fish) in a 10g tank, and while my bio-filtration is outstanding, if they were producing that much ammonia, there's no amount of bio-filtration that could keep up with them.

I have 20 in a 10g tank and they don't even begin to put a dent in the algae... of course, they also get fed leftover flake food and feeder guppy poop in the 10g, so maybe they just arn't hungry.

The bowl is a gallon, approximately. So now I need to work out where the ammonia came from. :sick: I'll test my tap water.

I just tested my pond and the ammonia's quite high in that, too. (That's understandable with the decomposing plant material in there.) So I don't hold much help for the two in there. :(

maybe you have some terracotta pots??? lol

Do you have any kind of filtration in the pond? Also, did you happen to fill the ghost shrimp container with the pond water? That would explain the ammonia in there... otherwise I have no idea.

I see al you guys like and keep ghost shrimp but I've always fed my fish ghostshrimp. I had no clue that ghostshrimp had such a following. LOL

Very interesting creatures. Usually mine survive being eaten long enough for me to enjoy them. Better than crayfish because they won't eat your fish, and they also don't have much of a bioload if any.

I actually had a blue crayfish but my dempsey got really curious and took a bite. I guess he liked it because he finished him off. Its tough when you loose fish like that , You get home and all you see is the shell.